


tell me the truth (even if it hurts)

by lovette11



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Fluff, M/M, Soulmates, blink n u miss it, it's not graphic, slight mentions of non-con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-10
Updated: 2017-04-10
Packaged: 2018-10-17 07:48:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10589607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovette11/pseuds/lovette11
Summary: inspired by - http://archiveofourown.org/works/3280859a world where you can't lie to your soulmate





	

"I wish I could say this was a surprise..." Steve had the decency to look guilty as Tony walked into his kitchen to find the super soldiers sat on the kitchen island, duffel bags at their feet. "What? T'Challa's palace too chilly for the Capsicle?" Tony commented, pulling out multiple mugs and starting up the coffee machine.

"Tony." Steve warned lightly, Tony just blinked simply in reply. 

"Oh, I'm sorry, did I overstep my boundaries again?" Tony didn't seem angry, as he stirred cream and 2 sugars into a mug and passed it to Steve, but Bucky couldn't help but flinch at the memory of the fight. 

"Li'l bit." Steve winked and breathed in the coffee, Bucky eyed it longingly. 

"How'd you take it Buckaroo?" Tony said knowingly, Bucky bit his lip to hid his grin. "You seem like a more cream than coffee kinda guy, ratio 3:2?" Bucky just nodded since Tony begun pouring it out for him anyway. Bucky inhaled the mug before Tony even got to pouring his own, with an impressed smirk Tony poured the last of the coffee out into Bucky's mug. Setting it back into the machine for it to make more, he turned and lent on the cabinets. 

"So how long are you staying? I have several floors set up, or you know - you can share one.. if that's happening.. Is that happening?" Tony enquired and Steve choked, letting Bucky's metal arm pound his back.

"No, god no Tony, what the fuck?" Steve gasped around his splutters. Ignoring Tony's muttered comment of 'language'. "Bucky is like my brother, it'd be like- like you and Rhodes." Tony grinned and raised an eyebrow, Steve groaned. "Okay never mind, it wouldn't be like _you_ and anyone." He rolled his eyes as Tony nodded approvingly.

"I'm a people person Steve, what can I say?" He shrugged and turned back to the coffee machine, finally pouring out his own mug. "You guys are welcome here. Stay for a night. Stay forever. You know, no biggie, doesn't make much difference to me. I'm barely around anyway so I probably won't notice either way." He downed his mug of coffee and immediately set off back down the corridor to the elevator, whistling a tune Bucky was sure he recognised as being from one of Captain America's tour shows.

* * *

Three weeks later and Bucky is coming down from a panic attack in the living room as he watches a Planet Earth episode, he's laid on the couch watching the fish on screen when a blanket falls upon him. He sits up with a jerk, spooked by the sudden weight. 

"Oh shit I'm sorry! I didn't realise you were awake!" Tony yelps, forearms coming up to his face in defence. He takes a peak through them and drinks in the view of Barnes' soft bed head and grins. "Rough night?" He commented, pointing to the strange mohawk forming.

"Couldn't sleep." Barnes grumbled, Tony hummed in agreement and set about climbing onto the couch between Bucky's limbs and the blanket. Skillfully avoiding touch with all of them. He began to watch the screen and Bucky admired the way the blue shades sculpted his face. "You weren't kidding when you said you weren't around much." Bucky didn't mean to let his thoughts be spoken aloud but Tony didn't seem offended.

"Nope." Tony popped confidently, giving Bucky a side grin before returning his attention to the television. "What's up? Do you want me to leave?" Tony asked after Bucky had stared at him for probably a crazy amount of time. Bucky saw the calculation in Tony's eyes as he began to extract himself, however he didn't anticipate Bucky's thighs to wrap round his waist as he was getting up.

"Actually the opposite." Bucky reassured, Tony squawked and tried to wrestle out of between Bucky's legs. "I'd like you to stay. Please." Bucky murmured, unsure why he was admitting this out loud, Tony seemed to go limp at the request, tucking himself so that he was plastered along Bucky's side. They sat watching several episodes together until Tony's elbow on Bucky's chest eventually fell to make a pillow for his head.

"You know, you look really beautiful like this." Bucky dared to whisper, Tony scoffed and opened his eyes. 

"Drooling on your chest at," he squinted around the room. "5:36am after a 34 hour work bender. Covered in motor oil and sweat. Sure, Buck." He chuckled and wiped his eyes, scratching his stubble and he rose. "Speaking of work - I have more to do. I only came up here for-" Tony stopped, opening his mouth several times but remaining silent. "Well, I came up for coffee amongst other things and I never got that coffee so... I'm going to... do that... now." He awkwardly finished off, with a forced pat to Bucky's leg and a matching forced smile. Bucky blinked in confusion at Tony's retreating back, his hand stroked along the seams of the blanket.

* * *

 

"Bullshit Tony!" Steve yelled, Bucky continued down the stairs to the workshop with the breakfast tray, watching the scene unfold as Tony circled his work space avoiding Steve's gaze. 

"Stark, I brought you breakfast." Bucky hollered as soon as the doors opened, watching as Tony's shoulders sagged in relief. 

"Buckybear, bright, sunshine, beauty of my life I could kiss you!" He sighed dramatically, practically running toward Bucky making grabby hands for the tray. Bucky handed him the coffee as soon as he was in arms length and hauled him around to sit on the bench. 

"So," Bucky drawled out, watching Steve silently seethe as Tony munched happily on a combination of grapes, crackers and oatmeal. "What did I miss?"

"Just another of Cap's lectures," Tony waved his hand dismissively "you know I thought him completely caving in my chest would make him less grouchy. Kind of like therapy." He stage-whispered. Steve threw his hands up. 

"Tony! We've talked about this multiple times, I care about you! I'm trying to help you and you're making it fucking difficult." Steve spat, "You're not looking after yourself, you've holed yourself up here for over 12 hours now!" 

"12? I thought you told me last night it was 34?" Bucky questioned, tucking a finger under Tony's moving chin and turning his head toward him. He studied the purple bags under Tony's eyes and the grime building up in his hair with a sigh. Steve made dramatic spluttering noises in the background.

"THIRTY FOUR TONY?!" Steve bellowed, Bucky winced alongside Tony and gave his back a gentle stroke with his flesh hand. "F.R.I.D.A.Y? How long has Tony been working?"

"If we ignore the break he took with Sargent Barnes last night for 4.2 hours, Sir has been working for 40 hours." F.R.I.D.A.Y seemed happy to provide as Tony grumbled into the plate of eggs he began devouring. 

"Why do you constantly lie to me Tony?" Steve asked, he waited patiently for a response as Tony chewed. Several minutes past and Tony clearly just continued the jaw movements in spite as he and Steve had a stare down, until he huffed and left the workshop.

"I don't wanna hear shit from you too, Barnes." Tony warned, he looked as intimidating as a man could with egg in his moustache and an iron man mug of orange juice in one hand could look.

"I'm not going to give you shit, Tony." Barnes stated honestly. "I am, however, going to make you an offer." He smiled and ran his thumb over Tony's upper lip, in the effort of grooming of course. "If what F.R.I.D.A.Y says is correct,"

"It is Sargent." F.R.I.D.A.Y interrupted, Bucky grinned.

"I have no doubts it is. Then the only time you managed to sleep was when you were with me, so I want you to promise me that you'll come to me. When you're tired, or hungry, or if you just want a break from all the..." Bucky waved around at the blue prints and schematics hovering in the air. "Just find me. We don't even have to talk about it! I can be in the gym and you can sleep on my back while I do push-ups, it doesn't matter." Tony scoffed but his smile seemed genuine and Bucky tied their fingers together with a wiggle. "Promise?" 

"Pretty sure it's only meant to be the pinky, Barnes." Tony smirked. Bucky gave him a shrug and held onto his palm tighter. 

"I prefer it this way." He explained simply, letting his thumb rub against Tony's. Tony's eyes followed the movements.

"Yeah, me too." He coughed and withdrew his hand hastily. "I promise and yada, yada, now can I continue working? I got a really cool idea for Cap's helmet but I'm gonna need a gun to see whether it works." He continued as he all but ran to the other side of the workshop and turned his back to Bucky.

* * *

 

"Come on Stark, what's your number? I think.. 46." Clint laughed, Natasha swatted him in the back of the head as Bucky entered the living room. A movie was paused in the background and a blonde girl seemed to be tearing a piece of paper. Tony let out a laugh, eyes just meeting Bucky's then looking away.

"A gentlemen should never tell, Hawkbutt." He kicked in the direction of where Clint was lounged on the floor, in retaliation Clint swatted the air. 

"Mine's 33." Clint boasted. Natasha gave a snort from where she was cradled in between the fork of his legs.

"Mission's don't count." She said simply.

"13." He said quietly, she patted him on the thigh in consolidation. 

"Thor, big boy, bet yours is at least 900." Tony pointed to Thor's dick as he walked in to sit on the couch amongst them with a crate of beer.

"What's this?" Bucky piped up, making his way from the doorway to sit on the arm rest of Tony's chair.

"Number of people you've slept with." Tony explained with a wave in the air, tipping his glass toward Bucky with a wink. 

"4." Bucky stated, eyes going wide as he realised he hadn't even been asked, Steve leaned round Thor with shock.

"Motherfucker! You always told me it was double figures!" 

Bucky shrugged and took a beer from Thor and immediately began to down it, avoiding confrontation.

"Hey, that's nothing to be ashamed of." Tony said softly and stroked Bucky's shoulder, Bucky laughed bitterly.

"I know, I'm not ashamed. I was _brainwashed_ for 70 years." Bucky said simply, leaning back into the touch, Tony had let his arm rest along the back of his neck like an embedded heater. "Still 4 more than you anyway, jerk." Bucky stuck his tongue out as shades of scarlet ran up Steve's neck to his face.

"We've all shared ours, tit for tat Stark." Clint pressed on. Bucky looked down at Stark in curiosity, his fingers tapped on his empty glass rhythmically.

"You won't judge me?" Tony spoke quietly, directly at Bucky, who shuddered and shook his head. "Erm," he coughed awkwardly, "so like, ball park?" Clint just nodded, eager to hear the answer. "Around 60? Maybe less." Clint gave a whoop as Steve choked on his drink. Natasha looked sadly at Stark as he scratched his ear in fake nonchalance. " I don't remember many of them. It was mostly in college." He tried to explain to Bucky, Bucky just held his hand and shook his head.

"I don't care." He whispered, lightly pressing a kiss to Tony's ear. 

"Wait, weren't you like 14 in college?" Bruce interrupted from the back of the room where he'd emerged from avoiding the topic.

"I was also a billionaire Brucey-bear." Tony winked, stretching out to go and fill his glass as though the room hadn't just gone mute.

"Tony." Bucky followed him through to the kitchen, watching as he held the tap on and ran his dancing fingers under the water. " _Tony._ "

"Oh my god, I knew this would happen! I just knew it! Look it was fucking dumb to even bring it up, just forget it or whatever." Tony rushed like he anticipated Bucky to raise his voice or even worse, raise a fist. His glass was now full but Tony left the water pouring out into the sink as he stood there. Bucky leaned over slowly pushing the tap off.

"Hey, no, I'm not judgin' you. I'm judgin' them other assholes that thought they had any right to you just 'cos you had some money. You didn't deserve to be treated like that- You _don't_ deserve to be treated like that." Bucky clarified, trying to get Tony to look him in the yes. He sighed as Tony stared past his shoulder with a curt nod. 

"Mmhm." Tony sounded strained to make the noise, his face going red as though he was bursting a blood vessel just to hum in acknowledgement. 

"Look, I know you don't believe me, you look in physical pain every time I say you're worth more than anyone's fuckin' taught ya. But you are, at least to me you are." Bucky gave him a pat on the shoulder and a sympathetic smile as he walked out the kitchen back into the lounge where the movie had resumed playing. He tried to ignore Tony's absence from the rest of the night.

* * *

 

"Injuries sustained?" 

"None."

"Stark." Fury warned with a ferocity that Barnes hadn't heard directed at Tony before. "Injuries. Sustained."

" _None_." Stark emphasised with a bite, Bucky could hear Fury sigh from where he sat out in the corridor. Suddenly the door opened and Fury motioned to him.

"Barnes. I need your assistance."

"Fury, don't you dar-" "Shut it Stark." "This is not your business." "Well, you made it my business!" They bickered ferociously back and forth and Bucky made his way to the meeting room. He saw Tony's eyes follow him sadly around the table, when Bucky took a seat right beside him, his shoulders eased.

"Nope. Barnes. Next to me." Fury clicked, patting at the chair and pulling it out with no room for argument. Bucky looked between them as Tony rolled his eyes exasperatedly.

"This is unnecessary."

"This is vital for your health." Fury argued.

"Unnecessary." Tony repeated firmly, as though they were in agreement. 

"Barnes. Ask Tony if he is injured." Fury ordered, Tony shook his head violently as Bucky opened his mouth, he raised an eyebrow attempting silent communication and failing. Tony eventually gave in. Slumping further down in his suit with a wince.

"Tony, are you hurt?" Bucky said gently, reaching a hand slightly across the table, fingers hesitating under Fury's gaze.

"Emotionally? Absolutely, this is a punch to my pride. I feel like I'm on trial here Fury. Truly it's very hurtful you don't take my word as truth." Tony snarked back, glaring at Fury the entire time.

"Again." Fury grunted at Bucky.

"Tony, are you hurt _physically_?" Bucky said again, slowly emphasising each word.

"I battled droids and a giant snake. You don't get out of something like that without a couple of scratches Boobear." Tony answered again, narrowly avoiding both their gazes as they got more frustrated. 

"Tony." Bucky growled.

"James." He snapped in retaliation. "It is nothing I haven't seen before, or will see again, I can deal with it if you let me leave." He said shortly, looking at both of them as the mechanisms whirred him to a stand. 

"Tony, injuries sustained. Right now. All of them." Bucky stated firmly, knowing that the suit was now functioning on auto-pilot as Tony was inside and that couldn't be a good sign. Tony looked at him with betrayal as he began rattling off everything that was wrong with him.

"Concussion. Three broken fingers, two left hand, one right. Two fractured ribs, left side. Fractured elbow, right arm. Oh, and five scorch burns from this morning on my forearm." Bucky gasped, pushing past Fury in his chair to cradle Tony's head in his hands. 

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" Bucky gasped, kissing his gently on the forehead and trying to ignore the blood that matted his face. "Don't answer that." He quickly added when Tony opened his mouth. "Right. Plan of action as of right this second - We're going to shower, we're going to patch you up, and then we're going to sleep." He ordered sternly.

"Um," Tony looked at him with curiosity, as though there was a hawk on his head. "I'm not going to argue with you because honestly that's the best post-battle proposition I've probably gotten in my life but I'm just going to clarify... We?"

"Yes, I don't trust you in the shower alone with a concussion," Tony nodded, seemingly disappointed, Bucky just grinned and nipped his cheek "and also I want to see you naked." Tony grinned as Fury's fist hit the table with a crack.

 

**Author's Note:**

> i wish i could write more for this but i'm bad at writing - i wanted to include so many more scenes with the emphasis of their inability to lie but alas; this is what remained from my efforts


End file.
